Patterns of information literacy and their predictors among emergency department nurses: a latent profile analysis based on the Person-Context interaction theory

Aim To clarify the subtypes of information literacy among nurses in the emergency department and explore the factors affecting profile membership. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among a convenience sample of 2490 nurses in the emergency department from April to June 2023. The clinical nurses completed the online self-report questionnaires including the general demographic questionnaire, information literacy scale, self-efficacy scale and social support scale. Data analyses consisted of latent profile analysis, variance analysis, Chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression. Results Four latent profiles were identified: ‘Low information literacy (Class 1)’, ‘Moderate information knowledge (Class 2)’, ‘High information knowledge and support (Class 3)’ and ‘High information literacy (Class 4)’, accounting for 20.14%, 42.11%, 23.36% and 14.39%, respectively. Different information literacy patterns have different characteristics. Age, years of work, place of residence, hospital grade, title, professional knowledge, using databases, reading medical literature, participating in information literacy training, self-efficacy, and social support significantly predicted information literacy profile membership. Conclusions Information literacy has different classification features among emergency department nurses, and over half of the nurses surveyed were at the lower or middle level. Identifying sociodemographic and internal-external predictors of profile membership may be useful for preparing interventions that will be better suited to emergency department nurses’ needs. Nursing managers should actively pay attention to nurses with low information literacy and help them improve their information literacy level. Relevance to clinical practice Insights from the current study of the latent profile analysis are beneficial to hospital managers in understanding the different types of emergency department nurses' information literacy and provide a reference for them to improve nurses’ information literacy levels.